CASH GRANTS WILL REPAIR CHURCHES

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Cash grants will repair churches

Some of the county's oldest churches will share more than half a million pounds of lottery cash for urgent repairs.

The 12th Century church of St Mary de Castro, the city's parish church, will receive £187,000 to fix stonework and look at ways to mend its crumbling spire, which has been shifting slightly, causing cracks.

Deputy churchwarden Michael Hay said: "This will make a very big difference. The church's council couldn't have raised the money itself.

"The spire is 500 years old and the stone is of pretty poor quality and has been weathered badly. It hasn't been repaired for nearly 100 years."

Most of the money will fund an investigation to find the best way to fix the spire.

Once that is complete a larger, more expensive repair project will begin.

Mr Hay said: "For the main job we'll be launching a county-wide fund-raising appeal once we know the full costs. We're expecting something in the order of £500,000 but it could be more."

St Peter's in Kirby Bellars, near Melton, will get £145,000 for masonry work on the tower and spire, which are crumbling so badly the church bells have not been rung in more than a year for fear of causing more damage.

Vicar, the Rev Peter Collins said: "I want to get the tower and spire restored so the bells can ring down the Wreake valley again, so this is absolutely terrific news."

Another church benefiting from the Heritage Lottery Fund cash will be All Saints Church in Seagrave, Charnwood, which will receive £66,000 to replace copper roofing and timber.

St Martin's in Stapleton, near Hinckley, will receive £31,000 to repair the spire, St Peter's in Redmile, near Bottesford, will get £47,000 to fix the roof and St Peter's in Tilton on the Hill, near Leicester, got £59,000 for tower repairs.

The money comes from the National Lottery and is given out by English Heritage. Places of worship for all faiths and denominations can get grants of up to £250,000.

Emma Sayer, head of Heritage Lottery Fund in the East Midlands, said: "Historic places of worship are an irreplaceable part of our heritage.

"In the past 10 years, the Heritage Lottery Fund has invested £155 million into these wonderful buildings."

For more information, visit: www.english-heritage.org.uk

MINDFULNESS & WISDOM 7: THE PLACE OF WISDOM IN THE HUMANIST TRADITION

At Christchurch, Clarendon Park, for the penultimate session in the course, "Mindfulness & Wisdom", offered by Christians Aware as part of their Faith Awareness programme. The eight-week course has been devised by Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons from the Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

Our topic this evening: "The Place of Wisdom in the Humanist Tradition", presented by Dr Allan Hayes.

Allan discusses the wisdom of Proverbs and of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels and makes a case for their value as human-created, human-centred sources of wisdom, without the need to appeal to supernatural origin. When asked to clarify what he means by "supernatural", Allan defines it (without recourse to any text) as "an agency with intention, acting with its own purpose, that is outside the normal discourse of science." 

Allan references two books, published within a year of each other, which illustrate opposite ends of the spectrum of belief: Don Cupitt's Jesus and Philosophy (London: SCM Press, 2009), in which the author presents Jesus as a radical humanist and John Shelby Spong's Jesus for the Non-Religious (New York: HarperOne, 2008), in which the author argues that Jesus is such an extraordinary figure, he must be divine.

NHS EQUALITY DELIVERY SERVICE GRADING GROUP

At the Peepul Centre today, for the Equality Delivery System (EDS) Grading Group, sponsored by the Integrated Equalities Service for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland PCTs, working in partnership with University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

This event is being held to allow participants to review the information NHS organisations have published and evidenced as part of their EDS self-assessment work and decide whether the proposed grade is appropriate.

The Equality Delivery System (EDS) is a new structured method designed by the NHS to assist its organisations in meeting the Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010, covering all nine protected characteristics. In order to get an accurate and comprehensive perspective NHS organisations using the EDS are encouraged to work with staff-side groups, community organisations and local interest groups in tackling inequalities in their areas. The EDS is broken down into four structured goals over:

• Better health outcomes for all
• Improved patient access and experience
• Empowered, engaged and well-supported staff
• Inclusive leadership at all levels

This has been planned and promoted as a two-day event: day one looking at the first two goals with the focus on patient services and experiences; day two looking at the last two goals with a focus on employment, staff support and the organisation’s leadership. Each day is scheduled to run from 1200-2015.

But it doesn't quite work out tha way. Attendees voice concerns about the kind of information evidenced (and that which has not been evidenced) and their competence to comment on what's been put before them. There's recognition of conflation between what's interesting and useful to the organisation and what's interesting and useful to service users and the kind of organisations represented here today. So during an impromptu break, the organisers rejig the whole event, cancelling tomorrow's session, bringing forward the close of today's session to 1700 and setting us the collective task of spending the next few hours discussing, devising and deciding upon the kind of evidence that would work for all of us.

I say good on them, for listening to what attendees were saying today and responding to it as a matter of urgency. I haven't seen that done very often at this kind of event. As I said to Christina Marriot, Manager of the Integrated Equalities Service, if they (and particularly she) don't get a gold star on the evaluation forms today for thinking on their feet, then there's no justice in the room!

BISHOP GUILTY OF THREE ERRORS

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Bishop guilty of three errors

The Bishop, in asking whether we would be more fulfilled "if there was no monarch to act as head of the Established Church" (First Person, February 18), gets three things wrong.

The first is grammatical; when we ask hypothetical questions we use the subjunctive mood, so what he should have said is "if there were no monarch".

The second is constitutional. Since the days of Elizabeth I the monarch has been styled "the supreme governor". And to get that wrong is, far more seriously, to get Christian belief wrong.The Head of the church, of any church, is Christ.

This understanding goes back to a momentous passage in the Epistle to the Colossians, when the author says of Christ: "He is the head of the body, the church" (1:18).

Richard Gill, Leicester

ANTI-ENGLISH DISCRIMINATION

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Anti-English discrimination

On behalf of the English Community Group (Leicester) I wish to thank Nick Knight for his letter regarding our community organisation and asking for evidence concerning how the British state systematically discriminates against the English (Mailbox, February 10).

I wish to list just a few examples:

English ethnicity is excluded in the Census and also from ethnic monitoring forms, essential if the English as an ethnic group are to receive appropriate levels of government funding and policies.The label "White British" not only disenfranchises the English from its legal identity but as an identity based purely on skin colour it provides far less legal protection.

The English have no official bank holiday patron saint's day; no English Parliament; no specific English anthem; no English passport; there is no consultation of the English regarding our inclusion in the European Union and of mass immigration into England.

There is no English Olympic team; English flags are being taken down by councils; local English food produce not marked as English; no original Old English language, history and culture is taught in schools.

English university students are forced to pay full fees while Scottish students receive it free.

The English have higher airport taxes; a health apartheid where English patients are charged for prescriptions while Scottish patients receive theirs free; no English community centres, and where thousands of charities and community groups exist for ethnic minorities, there is only one charity, the Steadfast Trust, for the English.

Finally, to reassure Nick that we are ideologically separate from the English Defence League (EDL), we are focussed entirely upon the needs and concerns of the English community, as opposed to the EDL which is concerned solely with militant Islam.

The EDL does not recognise English ethnicity, preferring to hide behind a false British identity and encompassing a multicultural approach to its movement.

The English Community Group (Leicester) remains a community-orientated and ethnic-specific organisation totally distinct from the EDL.

Clive Potter, chairman, English Community Group (Leicester)

SIKH COMMUNITY PLANS FREE SCHOOL

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Sikh community plans free school

Sikh leaders plan to set up a free school in the city.

They have applied to the Government for permission to create a free school and are in talks with the local authority over where it could be located.

Free schools are part of the Government's flagship new policies which allow parents, charities and faith groups, among others, to set them up.

They are funded directly by the Government and do not have to follow the national curriculum, but must provide a broad and balanced education.

Indy Panesar is president of Ramgarhia Sikh Temple in Maynell Road, off Uppingham Road, Leicester, and is one of the nine temple leaders in Leicester behind the application.

He said: "A lot of parents have approached us about setting up a school and after consulting with them and seeing that there's a demand, we have put together a business case for the Government to look at.

"There is a huge Sikh community in Leicester and parents would like the option of sending their child to a school which has a background in the faith so after considering it for some time we have decided to go ahead with this application.

"As such the school will be vegetarian and if we get the go-ahead it's hoped we can have it up and running by September 2013.

"Although the school's ethos will be from the Sikh faith, it will teach the national curriculum with 50 per cent of pupils coming from all backgrounds and religions."

A number of potential locations are currently under consideration, among them Ellesmere College in Braunstone.

The college is relocating to the former Riverside Community College site in Rowley Fields. The new Sikh school would be known as Leicester Sikh School.

Mr Panesar said: "It will be for children aged four to 11 with a reception class and year one class of 30 children in each during its first year with numbers growing thereafter.

"We're keen to work with the local authority to become one of the city's family of schools."

Initial set up costs for the school are paid for by the Government. Councillor Vi Dempster, Leicester City Council's spokeswoman for children, young people and schools, said: "We're always keen to work with partners to help ensure our school provision meets the needs of our communities."

Free schools were created by the Government to give parents more choice about the types of schools they send their children to.

NEW STATESMAN: THE GOD WARS

To hardline atheists, it is now unreasonable and “dramatically peculiar” to argue that religion is not altogether evil. How did such intolerance become acceptable to rational minds?

HAPPY AYYÁM-I-HÁ!

This is the first day of Ayyám-i-Há, the "Intercalary Days" observed by Bahá'ís everywhere. Here's some information about Ayyám-i-Há: where it comes from, what it means and how it's celebrated (much of it adapted from relevant entries in Wikipedia):

The Báb (first of the three Central Figures of the Bahá'í Faith, historically speaking) instituted the Badí' ("wondrous", "unique") Calendar in 1847-8. He divided the year into 19 months of 19 days each, with a number intercalary days (normally four, five in a leap year) to allow the calendar to be a solar one, rather than follow the lunar format of the Islamic calendar. The Báb did not, however, specify where in the year these intercalary days should fall. Bahá'u'lláh confirmed and adopted the Badí' calendar in his Most Holy Book in 1873. He fixed the place of the intercalary days between the 18th (penultimate) and 19th (final) months of the calendar from 26 February (technically, from sunset on 25 February) to (sunset on) 1 March. It was Bahá'u'lláh who gave the intercalary days the name "Ayyám-i-Há" or "Days of Há".

The nineteen months of the Badí' Calendar (now more commonly known as the Bahá'í Calendar) are named after an attribute of God (e.g. Splendour, Glory, Beauty, Grandeur, Light, Mercy, Words, Perfection, Names, Might, Will, Knowledge, Power, Speech, Questions, Honour, Sovereignty, Dominion, Loftiness). Ayyám-i-Há symbolises the transcendence of God over these very attributes. "Há" (the Arabic letter corresponding to the English "H") has been used in Bahá'í scripture to represent the unknowable essence of God. Under the Arabic abjad system, the letter Há has the numerical value of five, equal to the maximum number of days in Ayyám-i-Há.

During Ayyám-i-Há, Bahá'ís are especially encouraged to celebrate the unity of God by showing and sharing fellowship. Bahá'ís often give and receive gifts at this time, although there are no set rules about this. It is also a time of charity and goodwill, when Bahá'ís often participate in various projects of a humanitarian nature. It's not as if Bahá'ís are meant to leave off doing such things the rest of the year, but at this time they are spurred on to make special efforts in doing so.

As is the case with virtually every aspect of the Bahá'í teachings and writings, there are levels of deeper mystical and symbolic significance to Ayyám-i-Há, some of which are described or alluded to here. But you don't have to apprehend all the meanings of Ayyám-i-Há in order to understand it or, more importantly, to join in and enjoy it.

Find out more about how Bahá'ís around the world celebrate Ayyám-i-Há on the website of the Bahá'í International Community.

The photo above is from the Garden of Ridván, a place of pilgrimage at the Bahá'í World Centre in the Holy Land. I have a photo of me, from my pilgrimage there in February 1988. It was so cold and windy that day that all the water is coming out only one side of the fountain!

THIS WEEK'S VISITORS (1,855)

Regular update on the number of pageviews received from different parts of the world in the week just ending.

1. United Kingdom 916
2. United States 422
3. Germany 206
4. France 83
5. Russia 67
6. India 53
7. Canada 37
8. Slovenia 28
9. Latvia 21
10. Romania 20
11. Poland 17

This week's total: 1,855 (last week: 2,331). These are aggregates of figures from the top ten countries only. Blogger's stats software doesn't show me numbers of pageviews below the tenth-ranking country.

The world map at the top of this post is the graphic that I see on the stats page. The darker the green, the more pageviews from that country. I can see different versions of that map for "now" (i.e. in the last two hours), "today", "this week", "this month" and "all time" (which seems to mean the last 12 months). They're updated each time I look at them.

STAFF BRIEFING AT BEAUMONT WARD, BRADGATE MENTAL HEALTH UNIT

At Bradgate Mental Health Unit, Glenfield Hospital this afternoon, promoting the NHS Staff Multi-Faith Resource that Leicester Council of Faiths has helped produce for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT).

I'm here with Abida Hussain, Equality and Human Rights Officer in the Integrated Equality Service for LPT and the city and county Primary Care Trust (PCT) cluster, as we continue the process of briefing those most likely to use this resource.

We’re here specifically to meet staff at Beaumont Ward. It's the second time we've come to this ward. On our first visit to the Bradgate Mental Health Unit (see blog entry for Friday 13 January) we were booked to visit five wards in one afternoon. We met staff in Ashby Ward, Aston Ward and Heather Ward and were also booked to see staff on Beaumont Ward (and Belvoir Intensive Care Unit for that matter) but Beaumont was almost entirely bank staff that day, so we rescheduled this visit.